Count doctors among those who don't like the individual mandate.
In an MDLinx survey of U.S. primary care physicians taken following the Supreme Court's ruling of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 64 percent said they didn't believe the law could achieve its objective of 100 percent health care coverage for Americans.
MDLinx is a leading specialty physician portal.
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"The survey showed a surprisingly high level of skepticism among primary care physicians," says Stephen Smith, chief marketing officer for MDLinx.
Only 22 percent felt that the larger patient population backers promised would have an "extremely positive" impact on their medical practice, while 46 percent felt they would suffer an "extremely negative" impact, he says. Some survey participants expressed support for the PPACA concept, but feared the resources were simply not available.
"It is the ethical thing to do to provide care to the poor," one physician said. "But I am scared that there will not be sufficient numbers of primary care providers to meet the increased demand."
"People will always choose food for families before insurance. You can't make some people sign up," said another respondent.
Others doubted that the true costs of the law had been considered. "We can't print money in large enough quantities," said one doctor. "It will bankrupt the country," said another.
Other research from MDLinx says 26 percent of physician owners and partners in small practices said they could foresee closing their practices within the next year given the current financial environment.
[Also read PPACA ruling irrelevant, doctors say]
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